A MUM who agreed to mind a pistol which was used in the gangland murder of a convicted robber was jailed for five years.

Tricia O’Hara sobbed as she was locked up for housing the weapon which was used in the traffic light shooting of Paul Pike, 23, of Belle Vale, at a junction in Waterloo.

Mr Pike’s red Transit van was sprayed with bullets from a gunman in a silver Audi TT as he sat at the crossroads of Crosby Road North and South Road on June 5. The gunman then turned the car around and fired at him a second time.

Five people have been questioned over the drive-by shooting but no-one has yet been charged.

But at Liverpool Crown Court yesterday O’Hara was jailed for providing a safe house for the lethal weapon.

O’Hara, who has never been in trouble before, wept as the court heard she was a vulnerable alcoholic who had been under pressure to mind the weapon and ammunition.

Michael Stephenson, prosecuting, told how police found the self-loading Glock pistol and 12 rounds of ammunition while searching her home in Kilburn Close, Toxteth under a drugs search warrant.

When officers from Merseyside’s specialist Matrix team raided her home on July 14 she told them she had been asked to mind a gun and bullets and they found the weapon in a drawer beneath her bed. The 12 rounds of ammunition, which included two of expanding bullets, were found wrapped in a cloth.

Mr Stephenson said: “It emerged the gun in her possession had been used in the murder of Paul Pike in Crosby earlier this year.”

The court heard that 33-year-old O’Hara was not suspected in the murder. A man who allegedly asked her to mind the gun has also been charged and is due to appear at the court in March.

In interview she told how she had bumped into the man the previous week who offered her “a few bob” if she agreed to mind an item for him. O’Hara, who admitted possessing the prohibited weapon and two counts of possessing ammunition, agreed and he arrived with the gun and showed it to her.

Jailing her, Judge David Swift said that there was no lawful purpose for the weapon, adding: “The only purpose was to cause death and injury and this very weapon had already been used in a murder.”

Sarah Phelan, defending, told how O’Hara had been put under pressure and had been warned her 14-year-old son would be injured if she did not agree. She described O’Hara as a “fragile woman who is extremely vulnerable to pressure by others”.

Miss Phelan added that her client was an alcoholic who has liver disease, but said that going into custody had been a turning point in her life.

She said: “This period has turned her life around and saved her from an early death from the abuse of alcohol.”